Estes Park trustees deny Falcon Ridge ammendment

By Barb Boyer Buck

Posted:
06/24/2014 11:22:38 PM MDT

Interest was keen at Tuesday night's Estes Park trustee meeting as town board members considered a request by the Housing Authority to amend an annexation agreement between the Town of Estes Park and The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society to increase the number of housing units allowed on the Falcon Ridge site from 48 to 66. The measure was voted down by a 3-2 margin. (John Cordsen)

The Town of Estes Park Board of Trustees voted 3-2 to deny an amendment to the annexation agreement between the Town of Estes Park (Estes Park Housing Authority) and the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society, originally made in 2001, which would have allowed for greater density with a change of development plan on the portion of land designated for attainable/affordable housing.

Advertisement

"This is very difficult for me ... and I'm about to make some people I highly respect frustrated with me ... but when someone gets elected they bring their life experiences with them" said Trustee John Phipps, a former lawyer. Phipps made the motion to deny the request at the June 24 Town Board meeting. "For over 10 years this development plan was for 48 units. People relied on that when making these serious investments (when purchasing their homes in the Neighborhood). I do recognize the need for affordable housing, but I can't vote to amend the 13-year-old agreement at this time. I'm sorry."

Several residents of The Neighborhood, a housing development just south of the currently empty lot under consideration encourage the trustees to vote no on the amendment. Several other residents, including Diane Muno who was representing 14 business members of the Estes Valley Partners for Commerce, urged the trustees to vote yes. Detailed presentations on the dire local need for affordable housing were presented in detail by Rita Kurelja, Matthew Heiser, and Eric Blackhurst of the EPHA.

"Vacancies of rental properties (in Estes Park) in January were just 1.9%," said Kurelja, who noted that in a healthy market, vacancies should be between 5-7%. The loss of homes due to the flood - 110 of those renter-occupied units - has sped up the need for affordable housing beyond the predictions for 2015 made by a housing needs assessment in 2008, she said. This is true for the entire county, "Larimer County has a 1.7% vacancy rate for rentals, a 13-year low," she added.

The original annexation agreement contained provisions for the Tallon's Pointe Apartments on Lot 3 of the annexation, located on Red Tail Hawk Drive, and contained a development plan for 48 owner-occupied attainable/affordable housing units on Lot 4, a tract of land located adjacent to Tallons Pointe and just north of the recently build sub-division The Neighborhood, on Grey Hawk Drive. That development was never built under the agreement, which expired in 2011, because of the economic downturn, said Kurelja. In light of the increased need for rental units, a new development plan was created to increase the number of units to 66 and the overall density of lots 3 and 4 to 12 units per acre (up from the 7.5 units per acre agreed to in the original annexation).

After Phillps made the motion to deny the request, Trustee Wendy Koenig seconded it. "I see the need to maximize attainable housing, but we need to promote cooperation and collaboration. I support the motion Trustee Phipps made."

Ron Norris was the third board member to vote to deny the amendment to the agreement. He said the biggest problem cited by those citizens present against the change was people not getting involved, "not being reached out to effectively, a communication issue," he said, "Whether it's 48 or 66 units, either of those numbers will make a difference, neither is going to solve the problem. We still have a lot of work to do."

Ward Nelson saw "a clear statistical need for this housing, I don't think anyone disagrees with that," he said. "It's something we have to address, we must move forward." Nelson noted that there were no significant changes in the variance and the actual square footage with the new project would be less than with the old. He voted to grant the amendment.

Also voting to grant the amendment was John Ericson, "Nothing is ever perfect, we move forward doing the best job we can. It is important we look at these projects not only from an internal point of view but from an external point of view. The neighbors got involved at the very end of the project. On the other hand, there is no question about the need of this type of project in the town and for this kind of housing."

Bob Holcomb, who cited a conflict of interest, abstained from the discussion and voting on this issue.

Prior to the vote, Kurelja said that the housing authority will move forward on phase one of the project, which will include 45 rental units on Lot 3. She announced that the project had just received $1.8 million in grant funding; the entire project is budged at more than $12 million for construction.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.